As a colleague of Mindy “Hard-nosed” McAdams, I’ll comment on #4. We’re revamping our curriculum and I’m wondering if the problem with storytelling issues is where we have this placed in our curriculum (with the beginning reporting class, so students are mainly in their second or third year).
Perhaps, once we get all of the courses set up, more will have the storytelling angle down, but it is kind of like a chicken and egg problem that we’ve discussed as a faculty at length. Which comes first: technological skills or writing skills? We’ve opted for combining them, so, as a result, students don’t entirely know how to use the skills in a compelling way. There is something to be said for advanced writers learning the technology later, as they already know a good story and can find multiple ways to tell it.
If it helps, Mindy, I have the same issues in my information gathering class (Fact Finding). Students further along know how to write stories and interview, but can’t find information, vs. the younger students dig the research end, but can’t figure out how to put it into a compelling news story. It seems to be clearly an issue of there is so much they need to know but when can we get all of it in?